Graduate Excellence - 2024 Annual Report of the UMass Amherst Graduate School

Graduate Excellence

Annual Report of the UMass Amherst Graduate School

In this Issue:

• Dean Greetings

• Graduate School by the Numbers

• Thakshala Tissera Wins the Eighth Three Minute Thesis UMass Campus Final

• A New Chapter: Ushering in Change as Graduate School Relocates from Goodell Hall to Bartlett Hall for Renovation

• Graduate School, Making Strides in Mental Health

• University of Massachusetts Celebrates Major Milestone with Historic NSF Grant

• Nine UMass Graduate Students Selected to Participate in the Graduate School’s Public Writing Fellows Program

• Office of Inclusion & Engagement Welcomes Incoming REAL and Spaulding-Smith Fellows

• Support the Graduate School

Incoming Graduate Students enjoying breakfast before Welcome to UMass Grad School

As the academic year comes to a close and we head to Commencement 2024, we extend this annual newsletter to share with you some of the highlights of our year and a glimpse into just some of the achievements of our remarkable graduate students. I think if I were to give this academic year a motto it would be: Out with the Old and In with the New! In June of last year, the long-promised renovation of Goodell Hall began and we all had to pack our offices and move into “swing space” on the fourth floor of nearby Bartlett Hall. We discovered archives and basement denizens we never knew we had! You can read about some of the history of the legendary Goodell Hall on these pages. Meanwhile, I have been working with the architects, reviewing plans, and we are all very pleased with the updated spacious layout for the new and improved Goodell. We will have new and improved meeting spaces, a great new Graduate Service Center desk and offices, zoom rooms and a great view of the acacia trees every spring. If you come to campus, please pay us a visit.

From building renovation we move to systems and technology. In this past year we launched a brand new state-of-the art graduate application system, SLATE. Meeting the application needs of the over 14,000 applications to 80 different master’s and 50 doctoral programs is no small feat. We have the brilliant team of Tammy Maginnis, Kate Woodmansee, and Lindsay DeSantis to thank for seeing the successful implementation that will bring a more streamlined experience to the many people who wish to join our graduate degree programs.

Our next big modernization project is our graduate appointment system. Students are foremost in our mind and we know they need their employment and payments processed quickly. For years it has been an often slow and complicated process. This Fall we began working with a brilliant IT team to revamp and automate the whole process and bring the Graduate School Assistantship office into the 21st century. We are redesigning the forms, streamlining and moving out of antiquated pdf’s.

All of these improvements mean a better infrastructure and a better student experience. On the academic side, I am happy to report we are always looking to channel more revenues into graduate fellowships and grants. This year, in particular, we are launching a new Dissertation Completion Fellowship to help students get time off from working to focus on their own research and writing. Graduate students have to juggle so many responsibilities while completing their degree. Research shows that a semester off from work can be a game-changer. Putting this fellowship in place was a long ambition of mine as Dean. It made a difference in my own career and I hope alumni will join me in being offering this “game changer” for our students today.

I hope you enjoy the news we have to share and wish you all a wonderful spring and summer.

Yours

Jacqueline Urla Professor of Anthropology Dean,

Thakshala Tissera Wins the Eighth Three Minute Thesis UMass Campus Final

Exciting news! Thakshala Tissera, a doctoral student in the Department of English, has won the 2024 Three Minute Thesis competition, organized by the Graduate School’s Office of Professional Development. The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) challenges graduate students to explain their research in simple terms in three minutes, and Tissera's presentation, "Elephant Tales: Stories for Coexistence," impressed the judges during the live campus final on March 1st at the Old Chapel.

Rehab Heikal, a Ph.D. student in Chemistry, and Seanne Clemente, a Ph.D. student in Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, were named co-runners up for their presentations. Clemente also received the People’s Choice award, voted on by the audience.

Tissera will now advance to the regional 3MT in April, competing against winners from over 25 other graduate schools in the northeastern United States and Canada.

In addition to the 3MT competition, the Images of Research contest showcased visual representations of research on Instagram (@UMass_OPD). Grace Casselberry and Rozy Bathrick were recognized for their outstanding submissions, with Bathrick receiving both the "Graduate School Favorite" and "People’s Choice" awards and Casselberry taking home the “Instagram Favorite”.

Congratulations to all the winners and participants!

Bottom

Top: Chancellor Reyes with Thakshala Tissera

Middle: Grace CasselberryImages of Research

: Rozy BathrickImages of Research

A New Chapter: Ushering in Change as Graduate School Relocates

from Goodell Hall to Bartlett Hall for Renovation

During the summer of 2023, the Graduate School staff embarked on an exciting journey as they packed up their offices in anticipation of relocating from the familiar confines of Goodell Hall to Bartlett Hall. This move not only symbolized a dedication to modernization but also heralded a thrilling era of growth and progress.

Goodell Hall, where Graduate School offices are located, is going through a transformation to meet the dynamic demands of modern education. Named in honor of the esteemed professor Henry Hill Goodell, this iconic building, established in 1935, initially emerged to replace the beloved Old Chapel as the campus library, embodying a legacy of growth and evolution.

Throughout its existence, Goodell Hall has undergone renovation before, including a noteworthy $2 million overhaul twenty-four years after its inception, which doubled its size. Although the emergence of the W.E.B. DuBois Library in 1973 shifted the spotlight away from Goodell, it reclaimed its significance in 1979 when safety concerns prompted a temporary relocation of 150,000 volumes back to Goodell.

Now, as we embark on this exciting 18-month renovation journey, we envision a revitalized Goodell Hall that not only preserves its rich heritage but also boasts an enhanced layout designed for easier navigation for students seeking offices and events.

The relocation to Bartlett Hall stands as a testament to our steadfast commitment to providing unparalleled support for all graduate students, faculty, and staff. It symbolizes a new chapter in our collective pursuit of excellence, where every step forward is met with enthusiasm and optimism.

Graduate School, Making Strides in Mental Health

The Graduate School recognizes that graduate students’ overall wellbeing significantly influences their academic success, and thus, we are dedicated to creating a supportive environment where every student can thrive academically and personally. The Graduate School’s Office of Student Success has partnered with the Campus Life and Wellbeing Collaborative (part of Student Affairs and Campus Life) on several initiatives to help graduate students build skills to prioritize their wellbeing and mental health.

CoJourn

CoJourn is a structured peer-to-peer support program that trains pairs of people to partner up for more external accountability, connection, and support as they pursue their goals for personal growth and academic achievement. CoJourn was developed by Molly Keehn, UMass EdD, while she was working to complete her dissertation. The peer support and accountability approach worked so well for her that she started the CoJourn organization to offer it as a model for others. The Graduate School has offered a 12-week CoJourn to graduate students and postdocs every January since 2022. Graduate students credit their participation in CoJourn with helping them overcome obstacles in their academic progress, prioritize their health, and forge a new connection with a peer. Over 300 UMass graduate students and postdocs have participated over the three years of the program, some of them returning each year.

Expanding access to University wellbeing courses for graduate students

For the last several years, the Campus Life and Wellbeing Collaborative has offered two one-credit University wellbeing courses to undergraduates: Positivity and Relaxation Training (PART) and The Science of Thriving. Both are evidencebased courses designed to help students cultivate skills that promote wellbeing, such as mindfulness, reflection, relaxation techniques, and social connection. The Graduate School advocated for expanding access to these courses for graduate students by creating 500-level graduate-only sections of the courses. Mike Pease, a Benson-Henry Institute Health Promotion Specialist, has now offered graduate student sections of PART each semester since Spring 2023, and over 90 graduate students have now completed the course. The first graduate student section of The Science of Thriving will be offered in Fall 2024 by the Graduate School’s Assistant Director for Student Success, Denise Pope and a graduate assistant, after both completed extensive training from The Science of Thriving creators.

Supporting UMass Amherst as a Health Promoting University

In Fall 2022, UMass Amherst has joined international partners in endorsing the Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges. By signing the charter, UMass Amherst has committed to being a health promoting university – creating, cultivating, and sustaining healthy people, places, and planet. The Graduate School embraces this charter, and is partnering with other units and people across the University to build a campus environment that prioritizes the well-being of all community members.

Skill-building Workshops

The Graduate School’s Office of Professional Development regularly offers workshops and panels on topics such as the imposter phenomenon, work-life balance, adopting a growth mindset, and developing resilience by working with cognitive distortions. We also work with the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health (CCPH) to advertise their programming offered, such workshops and support groups for graduate students and international students.

Wellbeing fund for REAL and Spaulding-Smith Fellows

In 2021, Dean Urla established a wellbeing fund to complement the other forms of support offered to REAL and Spaulding-Smith Fellows. Fellows can request up to $300 per year for expenses that support their wellbeing. This is in addition to the wellness reimbursement benefit of up to $225 offered to all GEO-eligible graduate students.

University of Massachusetts Celebrates Major Milestone with Historic NSF Grant

This past Fall, the University of Massachusetts achieved a remarkable milestone by securing its largest-ever grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant, dedicated to funding the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS), signifies a pivotal moment in the university's commitment to interdisciplinary research and community engagement.

Under the leadership of Sonya Atalay, director of CBIKS and a provost professor of anthropology, the center is poised to merge Indigenous wisdom with conventional Western science in addressing pressing environmental challenges over the next five years. At its core, Indigenous science prioritizes the interconnectedness between humans and their environment, often transmitted through oral tradition and storytelling. This approach fosters sustainable practices vital for climate resilience and cultural preservation.

With a substantial $30 million allocation, the grant will support the employment of six

Nine UMass Graduate Students Selected to Participate in the Graduate School’s Public Writing Fellows Program

In Spring 2023, nine UMass graduate students were selected to participate in the Graduate School’s Public Writing Fellows Program. Forty-Seven students applied to be part of the program, which aimed to help graduate students improve skills in communicating about complex research with non-expert audiences. The nine accepted Fellows took part in communication training throughout the summer, learning different techniques for producing clear, engaging content for a variety of audiences.

As a capstone to the program, Public Writing Fellows interviewed another graduate student and wrote a profile of that student’s research. Here are three condensed profiles, full profiles of all nine fellows can be found on the Graduate School’s website.

Andean SpanishThakshala Tissera

When Christian Puma Ninacuri moved from the small town of Ambato, located in the central highlands of Ecuador, to Quito, the capital city, he experienced two things that subsequently led him to his PhD research at UMass Amherst. First, he spoke a noticeably different dialect of Ecuadorian Andean Spanish than the one spoken in Quito. Second, this difference was a cause for linguistic racism, or racism based on the characteristics of language use. This led to Puma Ninacuri’s interest in dissecting the generational evolution of dialects among Ecuadorian migrants. In doing so, he chose to consider both “synchronic linguistics,” which studies the features of a language at a particular moment, as well as “diachronic linguistics,” which examines the historical development of a language over some time.

When the pandemic hit in 2019, Puma Ninacuri’s work was interrupted until 2022, and the effects of COVID-19 altered his research focus. He found that the composition of the Ambateño-Ecuadorian community in New York City had changed with a new wave of migration. Due to the pandemic, families began using transnational communication via Zoom, WhatsApp, and Facebook. As a result, migrants were reintroduced to original dialects like Ambateño Ecuadorian Spanish. Puma Ninacuri came to understand that the use of language at particular moments in time requires knowledge of what has happened historically. Puma Ninacuri’s work has also uncovered wider implications of the pandemic regarding research and social development. Language, Migration, and Identity: Covid 19 and Transitions in Ecuadorian

37.3 million people in the United States have diabetes; a quarter of these individuals will develop diabetic foot ulcers due to high blood sugar from poorly managed diabetes. Ultimately, about 2.3 million people with diabetic foot ulcers will need to amputate a limb. That is equivalent to the population of New Mexico. Tailynn McCarty, a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering, is working to counter this problem with regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine involves replacing damaged tissue with healthy tissue that can heal on its own. By permanently healing diabetic chronic foot ulcers, there will be no need for amputation.

After graduating from the University of Rhode Island and working for Rubius Therapeutics, McCarty worked as a research associate in the regenerative medicine department at Astellas Pharmaceutical. There, she studied how extracellular vesicles (EVs) from stem cells could be used for regenerative medicine by transporting components of cells to parts of the body in need. McCarty’s work has also proven to be extremely versatile and can be customized to suit a variety of chronic conditions, further demonstrating her work’s ability to help countless types of patients.

Reconstructing the Identities of the

Individuals in Human Anatomical CollectionsChinedum Eluwa

Regenerative Wound Healing Technology May Help Prevent Amputations

–Harita Sistu

As a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, Adam Netzer Zimmer conducts research that speaks to a real-world question regarding bone collections in anatomical labs: Who are the individuals whose bones sit on the shelves of America's medical schools? This question of identity is often overlooked, but it's necessary given that research using skeletons is the foundation of many medical discoveries. While skeletons are necessary teaching tools for medical professionals, acquiring them for study has been a long-term challenge—especially considering voluntary body donations are a recent practice. Historically, schools use cadavers of individuals labeled “unclaimed,” or “unknown,” and discard features that aid in identifying these individuals.

Netzer Zimmer has worked to create methods that can be used to restore the identities of the individuals who are used for medical research. Netzer Zimmer takes a holistic approach, arguing that socioeconomic composition and political structure should be considered along with basic physical data. Fascinated by the ways various cultures interact with their dead, Netzer Zimmer also studies the impact of societal views toward certain individuals and how this relates to the collection of cadavers student's study. He has found evidence that predominantly black, segregated neighborhoods were primarily targeted to source cadavers for medical institutions—contrary to common claims that cadavers are selected with no regard to race. Netzer Zimmer is constantly pushing himself to ask questions and stresses the importance of recognizing the bigger picture when studying anthropology.

Office of Inclusion & Engagement Welcomes

Incoming REAL and Spaulding-Smith Fellows

On October 3, 2023, The Graduate School Office of Inclusion and Engagement (OIE) held its annual Fellows Welcome Reception at the Massachusetts Room of the Mullins Center. This year, we warmly welcomed 17 Spaulding-Smith and 27 REAL Fellows into our community.

The atmosphere was filled with solidarity as new fellows mingled with returning ones, faculty, and staff. The reception highlighted the importance of community at UMass.

Attendees participated in engaging ice breakers, facilitating connections and the sharing of personal stories. From hometown memories to tales of personal struggle and growth, each interaction added depth to our experience.

Throughout the evening, the Massachusetts Room buzzed with a blend of cultures, perspectives, and dreams, embodying our institution's commitment to diversity and inclusion. Here, friendships were formed, and the groundwork for a supportive, inclusive community was reinforced.

The Office of Inclusion and Engagement offers Spaulding-Smith and REAL Fellows special events, a mentoring program, travel grants and access to a well-being fund throughout their time at UMass.

SUPPORT GRADUATE STUDENT SUCCESS!

The Graduate School provides critical support in the form of direct fellowships, grants, mentoring, and professional development that many departments are unable to provide.

These supports are transformational. When you invest in UMass Amherst graduate students, you make a real difference in the quality of their experience at the University. Your support matters.

We invite you to choose one of our programs you would like to support. Help us help Grad Students succeed at UMass Amherst!

Your gift to any of these programs will go directly to our programs aimed at catalyzing success and help our graduate students achieve their dreams. We also encourage gifts to our emergency fund for students who find themselves in crisis or in need of a helping hand.

**The Spaulding-Smith Fellowship is awarded to outstanding doctoral students who are under- represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The fellowship provides full financial support during the first and final year of graduate school.

**The Research Enhancement and Leadership (REAL) Fellowship is awarded to outstanding graduate students who bring diversity to the humanities and arts, social sciences, education, nursing, and business, providing much needed summer funding.

** The Graduate School’s Dissertation Completion Fellowship (new!) provides a summer of funding to help students be able to focus on writing and make it over the finish line.

The Office of Professional Development (OPD). Completing a graduate degree takes a wide range of skills, from writing winning grants, public speaking, job interview strategies, teaching effectively, or leadership. Your gift will help us expand our offerings or pay the registration fee for a student to attend a valuable training event.

The Graduate Student Emergency Fund. Graduate studies can present unexpected challenges and sometimes crises emerge. Your gift can help us help students navigate a tough time.

University of Massachusetts

140 Hicks Way

514 Goodell Building

Amherst, MA 01003-9333

umass.edu/graduate